Watching the clouds (and other things)

This one's especially for dewhitton .



Today was a really good day for photography. (For walking, too-- I crossed the 250 mile mark!) See all the "keepers" 8 in all) here , or three more ( behind the cut. )

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I think some of you might enjoy this email I just got from My Sister the Naturalist:

Gotta brag a little ----- handled my first swarm of bees today all by myself!
 
    Andy K brought me two swarms yesterday to install in our beehive exhibit..... we were hoping the two swarms would meld once we got them in the hive (which involves POURING the football size seething mass of bees into the top of the treehive through a big funnel). Lots of bees were still buzzing around the building windows so we left the hive open overnight to let them find their way in.
    This morning I found the small swarm under the corner of a window and had to move them out of the building --- fortunately, they're really docile when they're swarming, hardly ever sting, and I just gently scooped them into an oatmeal container. When I opened the exit hole, a couple of workers came out and turned around and started fanning the queen's scent out of the container so I knew I had her in there. I went outside to take them around to the outside hive entrance and there were 30 seventh graders picnicking out on the porch.  Talk about WIDE-eyed! I showed them what I could and then asked them to move so I could get through them - they parted like the Red Sea! (They'll be talking about this field trip for a while!)
    Spent the rest of the day sucking the stragglers up in the shop vac and then emptied them out near the entrance,,,, about 50% of them will survive this and rejoin the hive.....     Realized that the top opening to the hive wasn't on quite right and was leaking bees one or two at a time so I taped up the opening temporarily. Then started catching the last stragglers with cup and card; that finally did get me stung --once - as by then they had settled in and decided to DEFEND their hive.
    Had a brainstorm (I'm so BRILLIANT at times!) and put a bag of icecubes up on the top opening, this forced them down and away from the entrance because of the cold and let me get into it this evening to quickly fix the entrance screen and insert a mite-cure strip.
    So now my bees are happy and will hopefully thrive....and I am happy and feel competent! Wow!
    It does make me sad that our beekeeper/advisor Florence (the Bee Lady) passed away in April and I couldn't tell her how well I did - she'd be proud of me! She was 82 years old and a real character!

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I posted pics of downtown St. Joseph last week, but that's actually 8 miles from home, so.....

One thousand steps from my door (and lots more).